


By the Sounding Sea

by harmonyfb



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 13:23:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2549045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmonyfb/pseuds/harmonyfb





	By the Sounding Sea

Once, in her youth, Father took them on a holiday to the shore. Her sisters splashed and sang, got their frocks wet and made Mama cross. But she sat pale and quiet on the porch of the cottage, listening to the far-off sound of the waves pulling and surging, crashing and whispering, again and again. It almost seemed like it was singing. So many things spoke, that shouldn’t; she imagined that the ocean had something to say to her, too.

It’s been ages since she visited the sea, but she still can hear it. Pressed close against her victim’s neck, she can smell the salt. “Shh,” she says, and stills his whimpers with wet fingertips as she strains to listen. “D’you hear it?” There’s never enough time to trace the whisper, never enough time to listen before the tide is gone, a red tide run out from where it speaks, leaving nothing but an empty shell.

Shells pretend to speak for the sea; that’s all lies. She could spend a lifetime listening to that, and never know. And she wants to know. She can hear the stars and the moon, and the pixies twittering, twittering always around her like the voices of little gnats. She wants to know what the sea has to say.

She can wait; the tide will turn. It always does.


End file.
